Rolling Global Outernational Non-West Non-English (Some Exceptions) 2022 Thread (Often African bands)

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/congotronics-international-konono-no1-deerhoof-juana-molina-more-prep-debut-lp-stream-2-tracks/

2 songs on the link

Congotronics International is a supergroup featuring Konono Nº1, Kasai Allstars, Deerhoof, Juana Molina, Wildbirds & Peacedrums, and Skeletons’ Matt Mehlan, and they'll release their debut album, Where’s The One?, on April 29 via Crammed Discs. This is a project that's been brewing for 11 years, and features s 21 tracks, including live concert recordings and studio tracks produced in the years before, during, and after the 2011 "Congotronics vs. Rockers" tour that featured all of groups and artists mentioned above.

I haven't seen anyone talk about Silvana Estrada's new album. It's a powerful, quiet, stripped down singer-songwriter "love aches" album with gorgeous, contrasted, nuanced songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMG7ePKkLnI
Te guardo (Live on KEXP)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egnp-WbtPs4
Tristeza

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDOeju9atXE
Marchita

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmj-Vm7SJ9M
Ser de ti

I like her too (briefly mentioned her on the Rolling Afro-Latino thread )

Her melodies and the production help make it more than just singer/songwriter formula

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/04/02/1090278433/opinion-grammys-global-music-category-ignores-musicians-from-much-of-the-globe?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR2uEUlgMBxq-sSmOwc3Atw2ZOhskMEHST0M7pLNn_dZ9mUxKcCVapxo50w

new Oumou Sangare song from upcoming album Timbuktu. She's got such a great voice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2vrl2S3tOE

Awesome Tapes From Africa just released Kadi Yombo by Papé Nziengui. Impressive percussion and call & response chants from Gabon

https://papenziengui.bandcamp.com/album/kadi-yombo?from=fanpub_fb_pr

loving this

I saw Ata Kak perform last night, it was a delight. Instant dance party, just a very wholesome experience all around.

ah man, saw him a few years back
so joyous

Chontidelia for free from 6 to 7 @ Kennedy Center Millennium Stage Friday April 15 (Afro-Colombian band from eastern part of Colombia)

I think this east coast gig is being streamed live east coast time on the Kennedy Center youtube and Facebook page (and archived too). The band was just in NYC recently. Have heard good things about them. Plus heard them backing Kumera Zekarias on his his ep from last year

I recommend "Stories From Another Time 1982-1988" compilation of Angolan samba by Mário Rui Silva that came out last year. It's light, gentle, elegant grooves, often just guitars, vocals, percussion, occasional flute, with a nice dated fade. Super nice.
https://timecapsulespace.bandcamp.com/album/stories-from-another-time-1982-1988

Also enjoyed Ata Kak live, I had trouble believing that he was in front of me in the flesh, and did not only exist in a corner of the museum of music nerdom

Seeing on Facebook and twitter that Nigerian hornman and bandleader Orlando Julius (OJ Ekemode) has died at 79. He and his band always put on a fun live show when I saw him circa 2015 to 2017.

Shame, discovered him with his last album with the Heliocentrics, already 8 years ago. I still have the groove of the opener Buje Buje in my head.
There are so many of these afro-funk / highlife legends that are overshadowed by you-anikulaknow-who. I was listening to Tunji Oleyana today (born 1939, who knows if still alive) and a little while ago to Babatunde Olatunji (died a long time ago), and it gives the same impression of infinity of riches as the more famous musical countries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gDOyC0ktcw

Ata Kak played a 5 minute walk from me and I'm very bummed I couldn't catch that show. One of my favorite albums of all time probably, and the show looked very fun in the IG stories that I saw.

I listened to Susuma by Jembaa Groove, a duo based in Berlin playing very consistent and warm afro-funk / highlife.
https://www.jembaamusic.com/
They sound like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZxm0EyvFjA

I recommend "Stories From Another Time 1982-1988" compilation of Angolan samba by Mário Rui Silva that came out last year.

Thanks, this is really great, though I don't know how much of it I would categorize as samba. Reminded me of this Fausto album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlTh95tUNOs

Angélique Kidjo stars in Yemandja, a new music theater work that is at once family drama and historical thriller, redolent of Greek tragedy and infused with themes of love, betrayal, honor, free will, and the horror and injustice of slavery. Named for a Yoruban deity, this MASS MoCA co-commission is a panoramic work of magical realism, a parable about gods and humans that illuminates through song what can happen when people are robbed of their culture.

This is coming to Kennedy Center in DC for 2 performances

Yemandja is featuring a cast of eight performers and four musicians

Conceived by Angélique Kidjo, Jean Hebrail, and
Naïma Hebrail Kidjo
Book and Lyrics by Naïma Hebrail Kidjo
Music by Angélique Kidjo and Jean Hebrail

very old news of course, but:

just chanced upon Samba Touré’s Albala album, a 2013 Glitterbeat release. fantastic stuff, just beautiful.

also the 2015 follow-up, Gandadiko

Oh yeah, Toure with that Mali north African desert guitar sound and his warm vocals

Nice Haitian folky voice --Nathalie Joachim w/ Spektral Quartet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-Cclla3k2w

I missed the Kidjo theatrical show in DC but someone who I know saw it and said it was as bad as this reviewer in San Francisco thought

https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/theater/review-marquee-name-grand-venue-host-amateur-hour-in-angelique-kidjos-yemandja

https://robertchristgau.substack.com/p/the-big-lookback-dakar-diary

Christgau diary of 2010 visit to Dakar

Awesome Tapes From Africa just released Kadi Yombo by Papé Nziengui. Impressive percussion and call & response chants from Gabon

https://papenziengui.bandcamp.com/album/kadi-yombo

― curmudgeon, Friday, April 8, 2022 7:29 AM (one month ago)

I'm finally getting to this: it's really good! manages to remind me of an impressive range of other acts (Sunny Ade, Thomas Mapfumo) while remaining unique

Visitors to this thread might like Haitian American Leyla McCalla's new album: https://leylamccalla.bandcamp.com/album/breaking-the-thermometer

I've only listened to it once, but I thought it was excellent. Among other good things, she does a great cover of Veloso's "You Don't Know Me"

This is a bewitching mixture of traditional music and experimental, sub-testing leftfield bass music from Kinshasa. Truly rad.

https://nyegenyegetapes.bandcamp.com/album/liye-liye

yes! posted before but maybe not on this thread, amazing album

silvana estrada album is incredibly beautiful, wow

yes yes to Silvana Estrada

Listening to Somi album now (seeing what I think. Some I like and some of her vocalizing is too afro-jazzy melodramatic and overwrought for me). Her Off-broadway production "Zenzile: The Reimagination of Miriam Makeba" is @ The NY Theatre Workshop through June 26. She's been researching Makeba. Seun Kuti has a co-writing credit on one song; Gregory Porter also; Angelique Kidjo & Ladysmith Black Mambazo too

Washington Post article on her (not sure if it's paywalled)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/05/19/somi-miriam-makeba/

A journalist friend of mine who likes some of Kidjo's music said he saw her musical/show/play I referenced above a short while back and he thought it was not good and poorly written. He said the story lacked subtlety

https://www.songlines.co.uk/best-new-albums/the-10-best-new-albums-from-around-the-world-june-2022

Some of these (out now or upcoming) releases look worth checking out

I missed Reyna Tropical (afro-Mexican tropical pop) live in DC last night, but the little I have heard I have liked. In an IG story I saw, there was a bit of guitar playing that sounded like Congolese soukous/rumba

https://pan-african-music.com/categorie/articles/?fs=e&s=cl

French website with some interesting articles

Just heard a late night radio dj play this year-plus old song “Jerusalema” by Master KG ft. Nomcebo Zikode and it still sounds great (as many ilxors have noted on various threads in recent years)

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3036461062_10.jpg

A soundtrack of Sudan's revolution and the first ever international release of the Beja sound, performed by Noori and his Dorpa Band, an unheard outfit from Port Sudan, a city on the Red Sea coast in eastern Sudan and the heart of Beja culture.

Electric soul, blues, jazz, rock, surf, even hints of country, speak fluently to styles and chords that could be Tuareg, Ethiopian, Peruvian or Thai—all grounded by hypnotic Sudanese grooves, Naji's impeccable, haunting tenor sax, and of course, Noori's tambo-guitar, a self-made unique hybrid of an electric guitar and an electric tambour, a four-string instrument found across East Africa.

A truly ancient community, Beja trace their ancestry back millennia. Some say they are among the living descendants of Ancient Egypt and the Kingdom of Kush. Beja melodies—nostalgic, hopeful and sweet, ambiguous and honest—are thousands of years old.

The Beja community has been on the forefront of political change in Sudan for decades because successive Sudanese governments have turned a blind eye to their calls for recognition and access to the gold wealth of their own soil. Noori believes an unleashing of Beja music would form the most potent act of resistance in their quest for equity and justice.

Read the full story and finer details: www.okayafrica.com/sudan-music-noori-dorpa-band/

In a way, "Jabana" is my fave because in striking contrast to their usual, faster (though equally reflective) groove approach, and a helluva ballad anyway--but also "Al Amal" and "Wondeeb" and then "Daleb" kind of melds the slower and faster, without seeming nearly its official playing time, which is nearly twice the usual. Really the whole album, of course. (Will also have to check out that other Ostinato Records 2022 release, The Strings of Santo Domingos, and the earlier sets.

Haven't listened to "Jabana" yet, but groove songs sound good

I recommend "Stories From Another Time 1982-1988" compilation of Angolan samba by Mário Rui Silva that came out last year.

Very much enjoying this, thanks for the recommendation. Quite an eclectic mix of stuff on there - semba, into clattery marimba stuff, into some random Roots horns, into almost sophistipop territory by the end.

Smithsonian Folklife Fest in DC will be live on National mall and on Youtube starting this week Wednesday June 22 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm with cellist Yo Yo Ma playing with a largely Afghan band . Details and Youtube link on the below

https://festival.si.edu/schedule?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D159951024

Folklife fest evening concerts will be broadcast, not daytime events.

https://www.uncut.co.uk/reviews/album/vieux-farka-toure-les-racines-138796/

I really need to give latest Vieux Farka Toure a listen. Lyrics about Mali's politicial situation and music that hearkens back a bit to his Dad , say the reviews

Feli Colina turning cumbia into a dark nocturnal affair on "Diabla" with percussive piano and spirited vocals alla Rosalía. It's on her 2022 album which is half influenced by industrial (Chakatrunka), the other remaining rather delicate and sparse. She's from Argentina.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDSjhlqC0fQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iodtNBYsv2Q

Just saw Femi Kuti and Positive Force tonight. I don't know their catalogue that well but it was a great show, very tight and energetic, really had the crowd moving.

Have enjoyed Femi Kuti live also when I have seen him in the past

Femi's in DC Thursday

https://pan-african-music.com/en/orchestre-massako-analog-africa/

Nice reissued old-school Gabon 70s afropop

I need to listen to Orchestre Massoko again and read more about 'em. Impressive on initial listen

Enjoyed that thanks, warm music, strong Soukous influence but sung by a singer from Guinea. The closer Temedy is as good as anything from the heyday.